Moody Food

This week we release the sixth title in the Biblioasis Renditions Reprint series: Ray Robertson's critically acclaimed sex, drugs and rock'n'roll-suffused modern tragedy, Moody Food. It takes place in 1960s Yorkville, when Bill Hansen hooks up with Thomas Graham, who draws Bill into an obsessive quest to create what he calls "Interstellar North American Music." As Bill recounts the rise and fall of Thomas Graham and his musical vision, he simultaneously tells the story of frustrated idealism and the passing of an entire generation.

Thomas Graham, as a character, is based on country-rock legend Gram Parsons. This book introduced me to Parsons's work, something I'm deeply grateful for. But the novel is more than a fictionalized biography of a wonderful musician: Moody Food is also, as Books in Canada opined when it was originally published back in 2002, "as good an elegy for the counter-culture as we've seen."

We'll be tagging along for the ride for the Toronto launch of Robertson's David (Thomas Allen) at the Gladstone Hotel next Wednesday, whith Dave Bidini, formerly of the Rheostatics, providing the music. If you happen to be in town, please drop on by. We'll also be doing a Windsor launch as part of Bookfest Windsor on November 6th, celebrating Parsons's birthday, with Kelly Hoppe (formerly of Big Sugar) performing the tunes. Details for this event and others to follow shortly.

Since this is a novel about the power of music -- and no one I can think of writes better about popular music than Robertson -- it only seems right that we launch it with some. Below, courtesy of YouTube, Gram Parsons and The Flying Burrito Brothers singing WHEELS: